Jim Louderback Builds a Windows Vista PC

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In this article, we follow PC Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Jim Louderback as he builds his first computer in a few years. Meanwhile, ExtremeTech’s Loyd Case joins the fray to share his thoughts during Jim’s building adventure. Take it away Jim.

It had been two years since I built a computer, and I’d started to feel like the geek world was passing me by. SATA, DDR2, PCI Express, Dual Core, all of these had become mainstream, yet I had no hands-on experience with any of them. I was even finding that some of the higher-end articles on ExtremeTech were over my head. And as overall editorial director, that’s just not a good thing. Sure, Loyd, Jason, and Joel will always be more plugged in, and will know more than me—but I can’t let them get too far ahead. So I decided to build a reasonably high-end and balanced system, with a goal of running Vista smoothly—along with any DX10 games that might come my way later this year.

OK, just to set the record straight, I did build a computer last year. But it hardly counts, as it was a Shuttle small form factor box. I’d hoped it would be quiet enough for my home office, and fast enough to run Vista. Alas, it was neither (although after replacing its faulty power supply it did quiet down considerably).

But that Shuttle was a bundle of compromises. Not powerful enough for the newer graphics cards, nor with enough room for a couple of fast hard drives, it was showing its age the day I turned it on. Nope, that box was destined for my seven year old; it’s certainly fast enough for Neopets, at least. Continued…

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